Recently, I received an email, which piqued my interest and made me question a number of things about Aam Aadmi Party. In a fund-raising event, to chat with Yogendra Yadav- the leader of Aam Aadmi Party from Gurgaon, one needs to pay 5000 rupees. Agreed, it is a fundraising event and every party needs money to carry on with their campaign, but being a party of the comman man, shouldn't they be more accessible? On the other hand, BJP was recently seen distributing free tea to their supporters. Doesn't the AAP people feel that they are going wrong somewhere and that this might not bore well with everyone. Trying to understand the situation, I talked to a number of people, associated and not associated with AAP. The outcome was interesting.

Mangat Ram Bagri, MCG,
Councillor of Ward 10 Gurgaon scoffed at the whole thing and
blatantly said (and I translate), ''When it was time to work for the
party, then they did nothing and now they are wasting people's money
and time. The people chose them, but still they did nothing concrete
and now they have are trying to get money for their campaign with
these methods.'' Many would say his views are biased as he is AAP's
competitors but it was surprising to heard AAP members of Gurgaon
mouth almost the same words.

Expressing shock and
disbelief of the move, Ranesh Yadav, Convener of the Haryana AAP team
said, ''I don't have any knowledge of this move but if this is
happening then it is wrong. I am not at all supporting this move. We
work against these kinds of moves and now we are indulging in them.
If this is true then we are deviating from my path.'' I, myself, was
in for a shock when I called Secretary Balbir Singh, AAP of Gurgaon
only to be told that due to corruption in the party and these kinds
of ethical fallouts, he has resigned from the party yesterday.

The question remains that
now they are charging 5000 for a meeting and 20,000 for dinner in
Bangalore, what would they do next. The common man had quite a bit to
say about this. In his Facebook update, Pravin Rukhiyar, asked a
vital question, ''If BJP or Congress would have invite 'Aam Aadmi'
for one time dinner worth Rs. 10000, what could be the reaction of
Mr. Kejriwal?'' Ashim Sunam, who is mostly apolitical in his views
feels strongly for the matter to raise his voice. Rejecting the
process outright he said, “ AAP is just following NaMo's footsteps
and is trying to outdo what NaMo is setting out for. Just by
replicating Modi's thought, it would not garner votes.''

Alekhya Bolla also says, “
I am a 'Aam Aadmi' and I cannot afford 5000 for a cup of tea and to
have a chat with someone who is not even taking the slightest bit of
interest to campaign and reach out to people. I read he goes to Cyber
Hub and to the interiors but what about people like us- who do not
have 5000 for a chat? Are we not important.''

However, National
Spokesperson,AAP, Nisha Singh were quite affronted when we raised the
matter with her. She said, '' there are a lot of public meetings
happening all the time, but they are not talked about and that is the
challenge. As for this particular event, we are raising funds for the
party and we are not forcing anyone to pay anything.'' Adding to the
statement, she also said, '' People can give whatever they wish to
and in the meeting we would explain to them the expense, estimates
that would go into the campaigning. We believe in complete
transparency and that is what we would be providing them.''

The Aam Aadmi do not feel
this way. Remaining anonymous, a resident of Gurgaon said, ''
fund-raising activities are supposed to have a very humble call. It
is nothing new. Every politician, including the American President
organize or attend fund-raising sessions for various cause. A few
days ago we saw BJP setting up NaMo Tea stalls to collect funds. We
have seen comparatively poorer parties like Trinamool Congress do
fund raising by auctioning paintings and handicraft goods created by
the party leaders. People do not buy a painting of Mamata Banerjee to
hang it in their drawing room beside MF Hussain. They buy it to
donate funds to the party and they submit to the call of the party
leader they believe in. At the same time Why did Mamata Bannerjee
take time to paint and then sell it for fund raising? She could have
just asked for it anyway from the person who already has a intent to
donate. It's all about humbleness.''

He continued ,''Calling
people to chat with Yogendra Yadav and buy a ticket of INR 5000 for
it, is a little arrogant. What will people chat about? What value add
will take home by listening to the man? AAP really needs to have a
re-look at their strategy. Placing Yogendra Yadav in a setup like
Warren Buffet speaking about Investments, is sheer arrogance and
stupidity.''